The Outline

I. The strike
a. the swell
i. purpling, then
ii. greening
II. and eventual recession to a mark
with indistinguishable origins, but
a. it is there
i. angry
ii. I am angry
iii. you did an angry thing to my body
green and swelling before you
I was open yet refer back to
I. The strike
a. it seems necessary to strike
something soft to see
i. if it will give
b. I gave for what
else is there to do when a map
blueprints skin
c. that is a rhetorical question—
II. You are struck and learn
a. what it is
to be marked
angry
b. the swelling is not
giving, it’s a bloody
yawp against the othermost edge
of my body this is the hard
cusp of my blood
c. this is hard
d. I am on edge if only
i. a bridge to walk
but I hear
III. the architects’ strike
IV. an invisible net
for me to strike before
V. I am stricken
on a rocky outpost
VI. the golden hammer
a. on the edge
b. the striking sea

Katie Longofono received her MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, where she directed the 2014 SLC Poetry Festival. She is the co-curator of Dead Rabbits Reading Series, a monthly reading in upper Manhattan. Her first chapbook, The Angel of Sex, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2013. She also has a collaborative chapbook with Mary Stone Dockery, titled Honey and Bandages, out from Folded Word Press (2015). She may or may not be on Twitter. She lives in Harlem.